Scheduling methodology for conditional execution of kernels onto multicontext reconfigurable architectures

The authors present a scheduling methodology for conditional execution of kernels onto single instruction stream/multiple data stream multicontext reconfigurable architectures. Data flow graphs are used to describe the target applications in which some kernels are conditionally executed depending on runtime conditions. Immediately after testing a condition the next kernel to be processed is known and its configurations and input data can be loaded, producing a computation stall while these transfers are performed. A compilation-time kernel scheduling is proposed to handle conditional branches (CBs) by determining a kernel sequence that minimises these computation stalls reducing the application latency. Target applications are firstly partitioned taking into account the presence of CBs, and then kernels are ordered for execution and mapped onto the reconfigurable system. Experimental results obtained for interactive and synthetic applications demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposal.